We press on with the final two classes of the CIAC state quarterfinal draw. In Class M, which has strengthened considerably in recent weeks, we have a defending state champ vs. a young but talented SCC Division II power. We have a pair of playoff babies in Plainville and Gilbert/Northwestern, who have played in a […]
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Yes! Finally, we have ourselves, in my humble estimation, a legit playoff season in Connecticut high school football. The pairings have been set, the hype is just starting to boil to the surface. It’s time to see who the best teams in the state really are. It’s time to start the new and improved CIAC […]
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The Thanksgiving Day Turkey Bowl between Darien and New Canaan had all the makings of a bloodbath, the salvo fired from a select few players on the Darien football team with their pregame bluewash at Dunning Stadium. New Canaan’s blood boiled when its residents saw the midnight decorations at their school Wednesday morning. Heck, police […]
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Extra! Extra! Get all your live scoring updates, and playoff point updates, right here. It’s all hands on deck for the staff of Hearst-Connecticut Newspapers — the Connecticut Post, the Danbury News-Times, the Stamford Advocate and Greenwich Time. We’ll be at nearly every single game in the Southwest Connecticut region for our biggest live scoring […]
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Who is the region’s player of the year? We’ve asked this question before. And we’ve received a variety of answers. New Canaan’s Kevin Macari, Trumbull’s Phil Terio, St. Joseph’s Joe Della Vecchia, Ansonia’s Montrell Dobbs (the state’s leading rusher), Brookfield’s Brian Kelly, Masuk’s Casey Cochran. All of them have gaudy statistics that are easily picked […]
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Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the greatest 24-hours of the Connecticut sports calendar. Tomorrow, thousands of Nutmeg state residents will get up, rub the sleep out of their eyes, grab a cup of coffee or some breakfast and head over to their favorite Thanksgiving Day rivalry game. It is a day where records are thrown […]
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It’s that time of year again… the Greatest Sporting Day of the Year in Connecticut. Rivalry Week. Thanksgiving Week. A day where every game means something — be it pride, a winning season, a .500 season, precious playoff points, bragging rights — and it’s played in front of, most likely, your largest crowd of the […]
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Just a quick recap for posterity: The 2010 FCIAC championship game between Trumbull and Darien at McDougall Stadium on Friday. Like we discussed in the aftermath, this victory was a mission statement from Darien, a message to the rest of the state as it heads into the Turkey Bowl clash with New Canaan. It was […]
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All season long, Darien silently seethed beneath the talk. They heard the whispers. They read the clippings. They had a good team, those of us supposedly in the know said, but they weren’t boss. They couldn’t be boss. Just look at the schedule. Not one heavyweight among them. You beat St. Joseph? Yeah, but not […]
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We’ve come to the portion of our schedule where small champions are crowned. We’ve reached the final, frantic few weeks of the high school football season and that odd week, where, with a handful of stragglers still playing, the state playoff picture clears as much as it’s going to clear. That’s mostly more for the […]
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Norwalk’s Pete Tucci will step down as head football coach, The Hour of Norwalk is reporting tonight. “I just think it’s time. I’ve been doing this a long time and I love what I do,” Tucci told The Hour’s Matt Doran. Tucci sites personal reasons, spending more time with his family, which is a sentiment […]
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We’re getting to these little later than I wanted, but here’s the first of four Week 9 movies on the docket for this week. First up, Trumbull’s heart-pounding 15-13 victory over Staples in Westport Saturday. This one, which sent Trumbull to its first championship game since 2005, needs no prologue or epilogue. It was an […]
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By virtue of its 15-13 victory over Staples Saturday, Trumbull is on the move, all the way up to No. 6. in one of the two media polls. It’s up to No. 8 in the CSWA and only 9 in the coaches. Staples drops to a unanimous 10 in all three. Xavier is back to […]
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Back in August, musing about the FCIAC championship race, we did a quick rundown of the Staples-Trumbull-Ridgefield side of the championship draw. Whoever won Staples-Ridgefield in Week 3, we said, was going to have a primrose path to the FCIAC title game if it could win out. Staples won. There was, of course, one variable. […]
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♦♦♦ Welcome to the first day of the rest of your season. For most of us, Week 9 is the last week of the regular, regular season. It’s the end of the idyllic Friday night football portion of our schedule. It’s the last regular season game without fanfare attached to it. Aside from a few […]
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Fairfield County is a breed apart from Connecticut when it comes to high school football coverage. We’re blessed (cursed?) with four dailies, maybe a dozen and a half hyper-local weekly newspapers and websites, two radio stations and one huge TV conglomerate, the year-old MSG Varsity and Cablevision affiliate News 12. They all converged like a […]
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Perhaps a 100 people or so trudged to cold and rainy East Haven High School to watch West Haven take on Wilbur Cross Thursday night. Maybe more than 200 were present when you included the players and coaches on the field. This relatively small band of participants and followers witnessed one of the wildest games […]
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Before we get to all the fun stuff today, here’s our presentation of Saturday’s Trumbull-Danbury game up on Clapboard Ridge. Danbury marked the 37th school we’ve seen in regular-season action and 39th overall this season. A couple more teams and we get a set of stake knives. This latest movie is jam-packed with stuff on […]
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The Elite 8 for Southwestern Connecticut for Week 8. TRENDING UP DARIEN — Rested starters and beat Bassick 35-7. Don’t expect them to drop anytime soon. ANSONIA — Derby/O’Brien Tech had the Chargers on the ropes in this one. But Montrell Dobbs, ol’ reliable, comes comes through again to the tune of 50 carries, 278 […]
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The Top 10 Polls heading into Week 8. And we have our first poll disagreement of the year. Xavier is No. 1. But so is Masuk. Xavier (7-0) earned the top spot in the NHR poll, claiming 12 first place votes over Masuk’s 9 and Staples 2. (There was one abstention). Masuk (7-0) swiped the […]
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Things got pretty much back to normal Saturday with all of the favorites winning, restoring some sanity to Week 7. So as we move on to Week 8, here’s a look at the local league playoff races. Here are the FCIAC playoff standings through Week 7. FCIAC PLAYOFF HUNT (Through Week 7) Team FCIAC Pts […]
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If you thought Week 6 was nuts, let’s try to recap Week 7. And this is just Friday night. (ahem) Ansonia beats Derby/O’Brien Tech 33-32 in one of the craziest (half) games I’ve witnessed. Derby/O’Brien Tech, which was given virtually no shot by anyone outside of its own hamlet, came in throwing haymakers behind Ray […]
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The masses have spoken on this Week 7: You want me at Bethel-Masuk. Ask and you shall receive! …But this appearance comes with a warning. Bethel has to show up, and I mean not be down by 3 TDs at halftime. It has to compete and give mighty Masuk a run. Otherwise I’m slinking off […]
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Welcome back to SPB’s Masterpiece Theater (ahem), where for our Tuesday matinee we present to you our modest production of Saturday’s St. Joseph-New Canaan game. You’ll see the media out in force for this Saturday FCIAC clash, but a late-arriving crowd. (Beginning of the game sounded like a mausoleum.) You’ll see the triumphant return of […]
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Here are your FCIAC playoff standings with three weeks to go. Unbeaten Darien and Staples are at the head of the table, with Trumbull, Ridgefield, Stamford, New Canaan all getting a seat. We’ll take a quick look at scenarios below. Team Rec Pts. Avg DARIEN 5-0 610 122.0 STAPLES 6-0 720 120.0 TRUMBULL 5-1 640 […]
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On 9:30 on Wednesday morning at Stratford High School, math teacher Joe Della Vecchia watched the sweetest two words in the English language buzz into his mobile phone. The message came from Tyler Matakevich, the all-state fullback and linebacker at St. Joseph High School, where Della Vecchia has been the head coach for 12 seasons. […]
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♦♦♦ WALK OUTSIDE. Take a breath. Look around. See that? Feel that? Taste that? There’s a chill in the air. Brilliant oranges, yellows and reds are blooming from the trees. The ground crackles and snaps beneath your feet. We’re knee-deep in autumn. And those crowds on Friday night, they buzz just a little bit louder […]
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